Accuride develops 40-lb. aluminum wheel

LAS VEGAS. At just over 40 lbs., the Quantum 99 alloy aluminum wheel for heavy-duty truck applications is 20z% stronger than the company's previous aluminum wheel while weighing 5 lbs. or 11% less, according to Accuride Corp.

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Sustained slow growth ahead for economy and trucking

LAS VEGAS. While “no one knows what the new administration will mean for the economy and growth,” the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is sticking with its pre-presidential-election view that the economy will grow a bit better in 2017, though that growth won't be substantial.

“We haven't altered our forecast materially, but we do see an upside risk in economic growth,” said Chicago Fed sr. economist and economic advisor Bill Strauss. “There's a better chance of it being stronger than of it being weaker.”

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Diesel Prices Fall for Second Week in a Row

Source: EIA

Diesel prices in the U.S. were down for the second week in a row, taking back some of the gains from the start of he year, according to the latest numbers from the Energy Department.

The average price of on-highway diesel fuel fell by 1.6 cents last week, settling at $2.569 per gallon at the pump. That price is still much higher than it was at this point last year, gaining nearly 50 cents compared to 2016.

The drop in average fuel prices was driven mostly by a 2.9-cent decrease in the Midwest, topping all other major regions in the U.S. New England was nearly flat over the same period, losing 0.1 cents for the week.

The average price of regular gasoline was down even more last week, dropping 3.2 cents to $2.326 per gallon. The price of gasoline is currently 47 cents more expensive than it was in the same week a year ago.

By region, the largest decrease in prices occurred in the Midwest, where prices fell by 6.4 cents per gallon. The smallest drop was on the West Coast, where gas prices fell by an average 0.7 cents.

Fuel prices seem to be mirroring the crude oil market, as the price of a barrel of crude oil was down in trading to start the week. Oil prices were trending upward to start the year in anticipation of a deal between OPEC countries to freeze or cut oil production. However, the deal has also reignited U.S. crude oil production, which has subdued any gains, according to a MarketWatch report.

OPEC originally agreed to cut oil production to meet lower global demand and drive up crude oil prices. However, the resulting increase in prices made the U.S. oil industry, particularly the shale oil portion, profitable enough to ramp up ...Read the rest of this story

Trailers are Smarter Than Ever

This trailer's sitting untethered in New Mexico, but its reefer unit can monitor temperatures of the load and transmit data to home base, no matter where that is. Photos: Tom Berg

Historically, trailers haven't been expected to do much more than carry payloads with as little bother as possible. They are sometimes set up to haul special commodities and accomplish specialized tasks. They can be made very rugged to shrug off abuse along with everyday wear and tear, and resist deicing chemicals that cause corrosion. But compared to the electronics-embedded tractors that pull them, trailers aren't too smart.

But that's changing, especially with temperature-controlled trailers. They are studded with sensors, primarily for temperature monitoring to protect perishables. Both shippers and carriers want to know the temps are right, including multi-compartment trailers with a different temperature in each. So Thermo King and Carrier Transicold, the major makers of the refrigeration/heating units, have developed ever more sophisticated sensors, monitors and controls to protect loads, and to quickly self-test their operating cycles prior to trips. Now reefer units can record and document those temps, and transmit data to operating people if they want real-time numbers.

Telematics — the automatic or on-demand transmission of data to a home base — allow truck operators to know how their vehicles are doing without quizzing drivers. In the 1980s, Qualcomm pioneered the tracking of tractors with its Omnitracs device. The small satellite antenna on a tractor's roof told fleet managers where each vehicle was and, through inference and scheduling, what it was doing. Managers and drivers began calling that antenna, and the electronic box inside the cab, “the Qualcomm.”

“We still run into that,” says Mark Alsbrook, product manager at Omnitracs. “Some people still call it that,” even though Qualcomm sold the product and the operation behind it to Vista ...Read the rest of this story

SAF-Holland to Shift U.S. Production, Close Michigan Plants

SAF-Holland USA says it will close its two plants in Michigan and shift their component manufacturing to three of its remaining factories, which are closer to customers. As part of the restructuring, the Muskegon facility will retain the company's Americas headquarters and engineering operations, and absorb sales and administrative functions from Holland.

Production will transition to locations in Dumas, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Wylie, Texas, the company announced last week. It will invest about $3 million at those facilities, and will build "a new state-of-the-art engineering and technology center" in Muskegon. Two other U.S. plants are not affected.

All production now in the U.S. will stay here, Steffen Schewerda, president, Americas, for SAF-Holland, told HDT on Jan. 23.

Meanwhile, production will be adjusted to lower demand for components as a part of "market swings," he said. For the coming year, "the forecast is a little bit down in the truck business and a little bit down in the trailer business. Nothing abnormal.

"For me, it's a matter of the external and internal supply chain and where is my customer base," he continued. "Logistics is a huge part of costs." For example, moving some production to Cincinnati will better serve the Kenworth plant at Chillicothe, in southern Ohio.

Ending of Michigan production will affect 230 jobs, of which 180 to 190 will go to Cincinnati, Dumas and Wylie. Michigan workers who are willing to move might get at least some of those jobs, Schewerda said. Sixty to 70 administrative workers from Holland will be shifted to Muskegon, about 30 miles away.

The Muskegon and Holland plants now make auxiliary-axle suspensions, fifth wheels, couplings and drawbars.

The transition, which is expected to be implemented over 18 months, will lead to one-time restructuring costs of as much as $10 million ...Read the rest of this story

Test Drive: Detroit’s 5-Liter Street Fighter

Detroit's new DD5 diesel is a 5.1L engine designed for urban delivery/service applications in Class 5-6 Freightliner M2 106 trucks. Photos: Jack Roberts

Take a glum Midwestern sky, add a hefty helping of fog and a generous glut of Chicago traffic seasoned with holiday shoppers, and you've got a pretty realistic setting to evaluate a small-displacement diesel engine designed for urban parcel and delivery applications.

The new engine is Detroit's 5.1L, four-cylinder DD5, which the company launched earlier this year and has been available in Freightliner M2 106 vocational trucks since October. Detroit is primarily known as a builder of large-displacement, heavy-duty diesels, so the DD5 is something of a departure in many ways. At the same time, it is an indicator of things to come: Daimler Trucks North America, the parent company of Freightliner and Detroit, is committed to carving out a larger piece of the urban delivery trucking market — a segment that continues to grow rapidly as e-commerce and the demand for ultra-fast delivery times increase.

According to Chris Moran, medium duty program manager of sales and marketing for Detroit, the DD5 is merely the company's first step in filling out its diesel engine portfolio. A larger-displacement, 8L DD8 is slated to launch next year, which he said will give Detroit a powerful and fuel-efficient diesel to meet any need for fleets with vehicles from Class 4 up to Class 8.

The DD5 will serve Classes 5 and 6, Moran said, with two options: a 210-hp version generating 575 lbs-ft of torque, and a 230-hp unit with 660 lbs-ft of torque.

“Initially, we're focusing on P&D, rental, lease and box- and service-truck applications,” Moran explained. “Our immediate plans are to get DD5 production up and running in Detroit by the fourth quarter of 2018 as well as launch the 8L engine.”

Daimler is ...Read the rest of this story

DOT Proposes Adding 4 Opioids to Its Drug Testing Panel

Image: U.S. Dept. of Transportation

The Department of Transportation is proposing to amend its drug-testing program regulation to add four opioids (hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and oxycodone) to its testing panel.

In addition, it is proposing to add methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) as an initial test analyte and remove methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA) as a confirmatory test analyte.

Published in the Federal Register for Jan. 23, the notice of proposed rulemaking aims to align DOT's regulated-industry drug testing with the Department of Health and Human Services' laboratory drug-testing requirements.

DOT said the NPRM also would clarify certain existing drug-testing provisions as well as remove outdated information from the current regulation and remove the requirement for employers and C/TPAs to submit blind specimens.

In addition, DOT said some other elements of the proposal would:

DOT noted that it is required by the Omnibus Transportation Employees Testing Act to follow the HHS requirements for the testing procedures/protocols and drugs for which it tests.

Comments on the NPRM should be submitted by March 24, 2017 under Docket DOT–OST–2016–0189 using any of these methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments

Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590

Hand Delivery: West Building Ground Floor, Room W-12-140, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Telephone: 1-202-366-9329

Fax: 1-202-493-2251

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